Customer Reviews

The King's Secret Matter

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This book is the third in Plaidy's Tudor series. It is painful to read of Queen Katharine's heartbreak over her inability to produce a son and heir for the increasingly tyrannical Henry. Plaidy's simple writing style is necessary to help readers follow the complex "tangled web" of court intrigues. Read Antonia Fraser's _The Wives of Henry VIII_ for the straight history, then Plaidy's novels for the fictional "inside scoop!"

This book is about Katherine of Aragon's later years of her life. There are many books on how Anne Boleyn lived, Elizabeth I, Mary Tudor and Henry VIII, but seldom is there any about Katherine.

In the previous two books in the Katherine of Aragon trilogy, you see how Katherine left Spain unhappy. She had loved her native land and wanted to stay there with her mother, Isabella of Castile. They show how she meets Arthur and how they get along, but Arthur dies before the marriage is consummated. Then Katherine's troubled years start. She is used as a pawn. Then Henry comes and marries her in a fairy-tale sort of way. Katherine is loved by her people and tries hard to give Henry a son and heir to the thrown, but the best that she can do is a daughter-who she thought would make a wonderful queen-Mary.

This book picks up and shows how Henry meets Anne Boleyn and whats it is like for Katherine, who was once wooed by Henry, to be rejected. He desperately tries to get a divorce from Katherine, but the pope does not grant it to him. The pope fears Henry, but fears the Emperor Charles more. The pope does nto want to insult Spain.

Katherine swears that her marriage with Arthur had not been conssummated, but not all believe. Henry wonders if this divorce trial is really a matter of conscience, or just wanted to rid himself of Katherine.

This book is a wonderful and sad conclusion to the Katherine of Aragon trilogy. I think that everyone should read all three of them and every other Jean Plaidy book.

As a dedicated Jean Plaidy (Victoria Holt) fan, I looked forward to reading this book about Henry VIII and the turmoil surrounding his love affair with Anne Boleyn. However, inasmuch as the story is told from the perspective of Catherine of Aragon, the storyline was filtered, and we didn't get a first-hand look at the protagonists. Additionally, the book was missing the wealth of information usually associated with Plaidy.